Sinclair Lewis

Born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, in 1885, Sinclair Lewis grew up in the Midwest he would later portray so memorably in fiction. He studied at Yale and went on to become one of the most widely read American novelists of the 1920s, writing with humor, energy, and a sharp eye for social habits and pretensions.

Lewis broke through with Main Street in 1920, a bestselling satire of small-town life, and followed it with major novels including Babbitt, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, and Dodsworth. In 1930 he became the first American writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, honored for his vivid, witty portraits of modern life.

What still makes his work feel fresh is the way he mixed comedy with criticism. Whether he was writing about boosters, preachers, doctors, or would-be strongmen in It Can't Happen Here, Lewis had a gift for showing how public ideals and private weaknesses collide.